Veteran leader rocks Kerala red bastion

Thiruvananthapuram: The ghost of rebel leader T.P. Chadrashekheran, who was killed two weeks ago, has been haunting the Communist Party of India -Marxist (CPM) Kerala leadership. Party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and his coterie — known in and outside the party as the "Kannur lobby" — have been further isolated on the issue now with V.S. Achuthanandan threatening to step down from the post of leader of opposition in the Assembly.

If the veteran CPM leader and former chief minister has taken this extreme step in protest against the leadership's move to shield murderers of the party's former leader, it will cost him even his party membership.

In the letter to CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, Achuthanandan demanded dismantling of the state leadership. He said that he could not accept the "murder politics" of the state unit and branding of the comrades who had left the party on ideological differences as "traitors".

Top party leaders, including four politburo members from Kerala, feigned ignorance about such a letter.

M.A. Baby, who was inducted into the apex body of the party at the last party congress, said that if such a letter was received by the party it would be discussed at appropriate party forums.

Major realignment

If Achuthanandan steps down and joins the RMP as is being speculated now, it will realign the Left parties in the state, if not across the country.

Though Pinarayi and other leaders reiterate that the CPM cadres had no role in the murder, the police investigation has revealed that the conspirators behind the cold-blooded murder of Chandrashekhran by contract killers was the CPM local leadership. Police also suspect the hands of one or more senior leaders. All six people who have been arrested so far in connection with the case are CPM workers.

Chandrashekharan, who was a firebrand and active leader of the party and served it under various capacities, had been a strong critics of the ‘Right' leaning of the state party leadership headed by Pinarayi and its thrust for asset creation.

Nearly two years ago, Chandrashekharan, along with several like-minded young party leaders, left the party and formed a new political entity — the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP).

The new outfit dealt a crippling blow to the CPM in the last Lok Sabha and local bodies election in the party's stronghold in the north.